A Sea of Red
by CO Raven
Summary: The ground was covered in red with the blood of many. Soul Society, the living world, and even Hueco Mundo had become battlefields. Few would survive to tell the tale. This is one of the few accounts. This is a submit an OC fic.
1. Apology and Rules

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

--

I will start off with an apology. I don't like leaving stories unfinished but circumstances spelled otherwise in my loss of not one, not two, not three, but four computers. I could do the other one but I started it to make people happy, many of which I doubt are still present so thus I am starting with a clean slate. I am busy so updates will not be quick but I will put on as good a show as possible. Now, let's start with some basics first.

OCs with a decent amount of thought put into them will be preferred. The more detail you can give me, the more often he or she will most likely show up as there is more for me to work with. If you don't give me much to work with, I will ask for more or the character won't have as much page space.

You may only submit three OCs at most for now. Once it gets rolling, the number may increase.

The application will be laid out in the following format.

Name:

Race: (as in shinigami, vizard, etc.)

Respect in whatever faction: (rated as a scale of 1-10 with 10 as the best. A one is treated like dirt. A 4 is the average respect a vice captain gets. A seven is the respect an average captain gets. A ten is near worshipped by some.)

Age: (visual age)

Height:

Build or weight:

Eyes:

Hair: (style and color)

Clothes: (be detailed)

Mask: (what does it look like if applicable)

Hole: (where is it if applicable)

Personality: (Include what types of people they would get along with or not get along with. Also include whether the OC is a regular user of colorful language or not.)

Likes:

Dislikes:

Zanpakuto: (name of bow if a quincy)

Shikai: (For quincys, sanrei shuto mastered or not. For arrancar, resureccion)

Bankai: (For quincys, final form mastered or not)

Zanpakuto personality: (optional)

Strengths: (tell me the degree of how strong your OC is in that area too)

Weaknesses: (If there are a bunch of strengths, this list had better balance it out)

Habits: (optional but suggested)

Position: (rank, division, etc. Does not apply for quincys or vizards. If espada, where's the number? I will ask you to change if it is taken.)

Bio/History: This is optional, but I will fill in the blanks if you don't. I highly suggest that you do, though.

Outlook concerning shinigami, hollows/arrancar, vizards, and quincys: (what do you think of them? Killing them is wrong? Let's slaugheter them all? Maybe? Whatever the big guy says?)

Let's move on to other things, now.

First come, first served.

Characters die. It's natural. However, no one will die early on and I will not kill off all of a person's characters. If a character dies, it may be replaced.

Everyone has an equal chance to look stupid or do stupid things. What can happen to you may very well happen to someone else, only ten times worse down the road. (This applies to real life too)

I will most likely be tossing in an OC or two but if you desire the position one of my characters takes up, apply anyway. My character will die, get fired, get exiled, etc to make room.


	2. Position list

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does.

This is the position list. It is here for reference purposes as some find it useful. This way, it is easy to check before applying for a particular position. If someone moves spots, they changed their official affiliation.

Shinigami

1st Division taicho:

1st Division fukutaicho: Kazuki Rikugou

1st other

2nd taicho: Howell 'Howie' Kato

2nd fukutaicho: Hoshigai Aihana

2nd other:

3rd taicho: Ui Sessei

3rd fukutaicho:

3rd other:

4th taicho:

4th fukutaicho:

4th other:

5th taicho:

5th fukutaicho:

5th other:

6th taicho: Suzumiya Kohaku

6th fukutaicho: Kaoru Itou

6th other: Ogata 'Shino' Shinobu (3rd seat)

7th taicho: Kamata Makoto

7th fukutaicho:

7th other:

8th taicho:

8th fukutaicho:

8th other:

9th taicho:

9th fukutaicho:

9th other:

10th taicho: Fuji Hinata

10th fukutaicho: Matsura Gaigan

10th other:

11th taicho:

11th fukutaicho:

11th other:

12th taicho:

12th fukutaicho:

12th other:

13th taicho:

13th fukutaicho:

13th other:

Council of 46

Vizards

Hanari Rikai

Akiyama Hiroko

Akiyama Nanette

Koizume Ryoku

Arrancar

1st espada: Don

2nd espada: Armelle Marguerite

3rd espada: Kanzaki Nevar

4th espada: Hedorah Samuel

5th espada: Tsubaki

6th espada:

7th espada:

8th espada:

9th espada:

10th espada:

Fraccion

Amaranth Delaine (attached to Allen)

Amarath Lucia (attached to Allen)

Exequias

Exequias captain: Enma Anthony

Privarion

101: Darknight Allen

Numeros

Other hollows

Quincys

Miyamoto Kiyoshi

Osaki Sanyu

--

This will be updated as I receive more OCs


	3. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Tite Kubo does.

This is more of a prologue than anything else.

--

A single man sat atop a roof in a barren land, a ghost town, Karakura Town. For years now, it had been a bloody battlefield. Everyone who was still alive had either moved out if they could or went underground. It was such a senseless battle too, one that should not have started at all.

"To think that this all could have been stopped before it got to this stage," he mused, brushing his spiky purple hair out of his eyes and pulling out a book and pen. Flipping it open, he began to write. After a page or so, he stopped writing. Another man had walked up to him, a hardened warrior born during the trials of this war. He unsheathed his zanpakuto, pointing it at the first man who just sat there, barely acknowledging the existence of the blade inches away from him.

"So, the Soul Society has sent someone to silence me," the first man murmured. He was answered with a simple nod.

"If you really must kill me, you should hear me out first and finish the pages of this book for me."

A simple answer came back.

"Why? Who are you?"

The first man simply laughed lightly, standing up and walking until he was inches from the tip of the blade.

"Why? It is because you don't even know why this war began in the first place? I am Raven Kanzaki, the storyteller, the story of how I and many others failed to stop this war before it got as bad as this. I am your narrator, and a beggar that we can learn from all the mistakes made so that this may never happen again," he replied, throwing off his haori and placing it on the ground with the book and pen. The strike never came.

"Tell your story," the second man commanded.

"Very well," Raven replied, picking up the book again and flipping to the first page.

--

It was short and sweet but I felt that a prologue would be fitting. The first real chapter is already being written so no worries.


	4. Changing Management

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does.

--

The shinigami had always been extremely unaccepting of the hollows and the quincys. That much wasn't really a surprise. It was natural. The hollows were the opposite of the shinigami and the quincys were seen as a threat to the balance by the Council of 46. The events that triggered the movement from general war between each faction to an all out brawl for the most part occurred in the Seireitei, starting when management changed. It was not the most powerful leader that was the most dangerous but rather the smartest. When the decision came from the Council of 46, few believed it possible. It was unprecedented, unheard of, and for the most part, very out of character. All the same, it had happened. The sick soutaicho had been deemed unfit to command and put on temporary leave until his health returned. In his place, his fukutaicho, Rikugou Kazuki had been announced acting captain commander. Perhaps it was because he was the most loyal to the 46's strict ideals. Perhaps it was because he was of nobility. Perhaps it was because of his keen tactical mind. Perhaps it was a combination of the three. These thoughts went though the heads of the other captains and most of the other officers. They were all to be proven wrong in time.

Several captains strode into the 1st division compound, slightly perturbed. The captains of the 2nd, 6th, and 12th had been called in for a "special assignment". The guards closed the large doors behind them as they entered. Before the three stood the new acting soutaicho. He looked as imposing as ever, not that it was really surprise. At 6-1, he towered over most of the other captains and the constant gaze of his piercing blue eyes just increased the effect. Then there was the long black hair to round out the look typical of so many nobles. Interestingly enough, he had opted against donning a haori, possibly for the purpose of not looking too arrogant to the other captains who were already unhappy with the decision.

"Welcome, Howell-taicho," Kazuki said, bowing slightly to the captain of the 2nd and head of the Secret Mobile Corps. Kato Howell or rather "Howie", was oddly enough part of the main justice system in the Gotei 13. It wasn't that she didn't have the capabilities. In fact she was probably overqualified. A master of poisons on top of the usual methods of killing, she was probably the best assassin that the Gotei 13 had seen in centuries. What was odd was how lax she was about almost everything at the same time. Unlike almost all of her predecessors, she loved it when people disagreed with her and spoke up regardless of her position. On top of that, the typical master assassin didn't go walking around in a bath robe. Open. Everywhere. Just then, her pet albino snake poked its head out from behind her lavender hair, hissing. Rikugou leapt back in a rather undignified manner, mortified. No matter how many times it happened, the reaction was always the same.

"Now, Orochi, you know Rikugou doesn't like it when you do that," Howie told her snake, petting him and ushering him back under her haori. Regaining his composure, Rikugou moved onto the next captain.

"Welcome, Suzumiya-taicho," Rikugou greeted. Captain of the 6th division, Suzumiya Kohaku was extremely refined at first sight. She was the one person that Rikugou had totally read wrong not once, but twice. With prim and neat clothes, always ironed and pressed in combination with her long snowy white hair and elegant prescence, one would typically think of her to be one of the more refined captains. At least, that was until Rikugou had bumped into her by accident one day, making her drop her box of pocky that Raven Kanzaki had smuggled in from the living world. Okay, he had no proof but it HAD to have been him. There was no one else with enough knowledge of the security system and how to get around it in order to smuggle enough of the stuff into the Seireitei to feed them all for a month. Anyway, Rikugou had the surprise of his life as the petite, refined looking captain opened her mouth and screeched a legendary stream of profanities at him. It was only after she was done that he'd remembered that she was nearly a whole foot shorter than him. It sure hadn't seemed like it at the time. The second time he'd read her wrong was during an incident with the 11th. He certainly hadn't been expecting to have her playing peacekeeper with him during a dispute between the 4th and the 11th just later that day. Apparently, she was a stickler for not fighting without a really good reason, a policy that she imposed on others quite often. Then Rikugou brought his gaze to the third captain.

"Welcome, Kanzaki-taicho," Rikugou greeted. Kanzaki Raven, captain of the 12th division and the head of the Department of Research and Development, the one with the perfect record that he could never pin anything on. Everything to authority of almost any kind was always "Yes Sir", "Thank you Sir", "I'll get right on it, Sir", and then something next to impossible would happen. "Sir, I don't know how or why there's enough pocky here to fill the entire 1st division compound from floor to ceiling." Lies. All of it. Then there was all the quincy gear he kept acquiring among other things. A little of it seemed like it could be linked to crimes of sorts and the rest just seemed totally random. What made it worse is that he seemed like a total nerd, the rectangular glasses, the unruly purple hair, constantly tinkering with this or that. Beyond all that, the glowing red eyes told something entirely different. They were calm and calculating, analyzing every last detail and there was little doubt that thousands of scenarios were always running through that man's head at all times.

To Rikugou, these three were the most dangerous forces in the Seireitei. Simply put, they were the three captains with the most questionable loyalty. That's why they were here and he was sure they had pieced it together all too quickly. To compound things, two of them were heads of extremely pivotal divisions. Not only was Howie in control of basically all assassination and arrest operations but she was also in control of the Maggot's Nest. Raven was in control of the security, early warning systems, and the senkaimon gates, plus he had access to all the technology under development. He could easily use some new invention to do something that most would deem impossible while keeping it off record by labeling it as still in production or undergoing testing. That was why he was doing what he was doing now.

"I have called you here for a special assignment as I'm sure you all already know. This mission will be off the record. We have received information that the vizards in the living world are gearing up for a war. While usually spread out, they're all gathering in Karakura Town, this era's epicenter of spiritual activity. Your mission is to exterminate as many as possible in a blitz against them and gather information on the rest. Here is the file we have on all current known vizards," Rikugou said, holding out a black folder, "You will also find some mission detail there as well. Dismissed."

Kohaku took the folder and the three walked out. As soon as the doors were closed upon their exit, the questions and comments began to pop up.

"You know, kill as many as you can is really vague for such a mission," Raven said to no one in particular.

"Raven, you can drop the stupid act. You know just as well as I exactly what this is for and we're not around technical authority. The 46 doesn't trust us," Howie sighed, "Kohaku is known for refusing to fight anything she doesn't find evil and frankly her definition of the word disagrees with theirs. You're just you, doing whatever shady stuff you usually do."

"What about you? Why are you here with us, Howie?" Kohaku asked.

"Oh, right. You weren't here when it happened, were you?" Howie realized. She flipped open the black folder in Kohaku's hands and pointed to the picture on the first page.

"My cousin, Rikai Hanari."

--

First chapter done. For those who didn't show up in this one, I promise they'll make an appearance in the next.


	5. Preparations

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does.

--

Wait for it… Wait for it…

"Whaaaaat?!" Kohaku fumed, "That's just cruel!"

Well, admittedly, sending someone after their cousin as a disguised test of loyalty was a bit underhanded but that's just how some people worked. Evidently, that included the new acting soutaicho. All the same, what was there to be done about it? They had their orders and though it could be bent a little, they couldn't just ignore the task entirely.

"So what do you have in mind? Go and not kill anyone?" Kohaku asked, jabbing the question in Raven's direction. He usually seemed to have some totally outlandish and radical yet effective solution for everything. Getting no answer, she began to poke him repeatedly. It was fairly effective persuasion in the past, seeing as it was what triggered what had become known as "the pocky incident". Of course, she only did it in private. If too many people knew, Raven would eventually find the effort to put a stop to that method and then she wouldn't be able to use him as her method of getting stuff from the living world in mass at her beck and call.

"Geez, stop poking me, Kohaku-san. I don't have some magical solution for this," Raven groaned, inching away.

"The vizards aren't just going to go down so easily so us not killing one isn't that farfetched. Their raw capability to take damage is higher than ours due to their hollow powers and there are several who used to be in the 4th division," Howie explained. With that bit settled as much as possible, the trio walked along for a while, then parted ways to get ready. No sooner had the others gone out of the vicinity then Raven sensed someone watching him. There was a flash of black. He just facepalmed. Here they went again. A flash of black went by, landing behind him.

"Ui Sessei," Raven said, more of a statement of fact than anything else. That would be Ui Sessei, the captain of the third division, one of the more disagreeable captains at that in his opinion. In the distance, they both spotted Kohaku. Sessei let out a loud wolf whistle. He was answered with a Byakurai which he sidestepped, walking right into Geki. In the moment it took him to break loose, he was greeted with a Soren Sokatsui to the face, then a stream of profanities too long and legendary to comprehend.

"Slut…" Sessei muttered, dusting himself off. That would be the third time his clothes got singed today alone. Then he turned back to Raven.

"How come a little punk like you always gets to hang out with the chicks? You're such a coward," Sessei growled, shoving Raven who didn't answer as he kept on walking.

See? Totally disagreeable. Someone just didn't get that a lack of respect probably had something to do with it and it wasn't like he was a real ladies man either. Howie mainly talked to him to milk the latest gear out of him for the Secret Mobile Corps. Kohaku used him as a smuggling service to and from the living world. Shinobu just followed her captain, Kohaku, around. What it really boiled down to was that they wanted stuff and he provided it or they were there by circumstance. Sighing, he walked along, ignoring Sessei's antics. It was like a morning ritual. Sessei would keep goading him, knowing that he wouldn't fight back or fry him with kido. Then he'd eventually move on to instigate elsewhere. The key word was eventually. He was a delight to have around during war but a pain in peace at least from Raven's perspective.

In the 6th division, things were carrying on as usual whenever the captain was out. The office was occupied by the vice captain and the third seat, quite possibly the most polarized people in the Seireitei, forced to work together. Most saw it as cruel and unusual punishment for laid out for unknown reasons. The first was Itou Kaoru, the tan and buff living definition of the word brute. Standing at a full 6-2, he towered over everyone else in his division and stuck out like a sore thumb compared to his much smaller and kinder looking co-workers. Of course, that hardly meant he could even hold a candle to his captain in a screaming match. Then again, who could? He cracked his neck, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the desk and brushing a hand over his overly long dark brown ponytail as he tossed out his old cigarette and reached for another. After lighting it, he fixed his right sleeve again. He had yo, the Japanese calligraphic character for honor tattooed on his arm and he was extremely adamant about making sure everyone saw it. If they didn't, it would soon be shoved in their face to make sure they did.

"Itou-fukutaicho, Suzumiya-taicho doesn't like you smoking in here and I don't think she'll think you using the no smoking sign as a footrest is funny," the third seat said in a quiet voice. Kaoru glared over at her.

"Shut up, Shino, and do the paperwork. The captain will probably be back in a bit."

The third seat shrunk back, returning to the paperwork, unwilling to argue over the fact that she was doing Kaoru's share of the paperwork again while he just did whatever he wanted. That would be Ogata Shinobu, the kind, quiet girl who wouldn't hurt a fly if she could avoid it. Just then, a fly flew by her head and was promptly blasted into oblivion with a small burst of kido, purely out of reflex. Okay. Maybe she would but insects minus ladybugs and butterflies were an exception due to her severe dislike of them. Of course, she still teared up whenever she ended life of any kind, kind of like how she was doing now.

"Oh, stop crying and get back to work," Kaoru grumbled, yanking on one of Shino's loose blue pigtails.

"You're so mean…" Shino sniffed, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her kimono and turning back to the stack of paperwork. Kohaku walked in, grabbed some papers off her desk and walked out. Kaoru just blinked, too shocked to drop some cheesy pickup line on her before she left. She hadn't yelled at them. The paperwork wasn't done. He was totally lazing out on the job, and she hadn't even taken his cigarette like she usually did. Taking his feet off the desk, Kaoru got up to go follow her. Something big must be happening that she didn't like. He may not be some kind of genius prick like Kazuki but when the signs were this obvious, he could read them pretty easily.

"Taicho, what's happening?" Kaoru asked.

"Don't ask. I have a mission in the living world. Help Shino with the paperwork and stop smoking in the office," Kohaku said, swiping the cigarette out of his mouth and stomping it with her foot. With that, she walked right back out. Groaning, Kaoru wandered back to the office to do as he was told. Whenever his captain talked that way, it meant that she was pissed and he didn't feel like being the outlet for that anger. He did have some sense of self preservation after all.

Meanwhile, Howie had other things than just the mission on her mind. Rather, she was thinking ahead. Fuji Hinata, the captain of the 10th was also an extremely mellow captain. Sure, she wasn't as quick to disregard orders as they were but she tended to show more loyalty towards her comrades than the Council of 46 so it was odd that they hadn't put her on the mission too. Knowing her, she'd be playing with some random kids on the streets in the Rukongai. Her vice captain, Gaigan Matsura, would probably be there as well so there would be the additional task of prying him off of her without being suspicious so they could talk privately. It wasn't so much that she didn't trust Matsura as it was the well known fact that he was a purist. His philosophy was that everyone else, hollows, arrancar, vizards, quincys, bounts, and who knows what else deserved to be eradicated. Humans and shinigami as a race were exempt since humans were the direct source of shinigami being born and he was a shinigami.

--

"Knight to e5."

A chess piece was picked up and set down on the board. Two men sat across from each other at the lone table in the room, the primera espada and the tercera espada.

"A bold move. How unlike you," the primera commented. That would be the strongest of the arrancar, a strong vastrolorde class arrancar at that, known simply as Don. At 6-4 with a sleek trimmed arrancar coat that made himself look even taller whit a long black ponytail to round out the image, he was the recipient of a couple now popular nicknames. Referred to by the brave as "Tall, dark, and handsome" or "Prettyboy" and Don-sama by nearly everyone else, his mere existence broke the general trend of the previous primeras. All of those who had preceeded him as far as anyone knew were ferocious brawlers who had clawed their way to the top of Las Noches to claim the coveted title. Then they would get ambushed and a new primera would arise. Then the cycle would repeat. Then Don came along. There was a flash as he released his resureccion and the splatter of blood. The process of dethroning had taken mere seconds. Four of the espada had charged him, thinking that he was a one hit wonder who used up all his energy in that attack. In a flash, Don had whipped out a caja negacion, using it on the segunda, then proceeded to snap the others like twigs. When the segunda got back, he was impaled before he even got halfway out of the garganta. Once business had been taken care of, Don had systematically retooled the system to make everything more efficient. Now each espada commanded an army as did the exequias, each a larger, more skilled army than the last as the ranks went up. Most of the adjuchas had been rounded up and "enlisted". No one was really going to say that his deviance from the typical ruffian look that the other primeras had shared meant anything, though, after he slaughtered four espada without any real injury at all and totally militarized the forces of Hueco Mundo. Sure, it had thrown Las Noches into an uproar when the new primera was found to have no plan to immediately storm the living world and crush the shinigami, bring his guitar to meetings, play it for a good half hour or so before saying anything of importance at the meeting, and sleep at said meetings but that passed in time. However, his genius leadership had made them flourish so no one was going to get picky over his unusual habits. He picked up a piece.

"Bishop to f4," Don replied, setting his piece down, eyeing the tercera espada, the one he trusted the least, Nevar Kanzaki. Basically everything about him seemed weird to the other arrancar. His body looked somewhat frail compared to most of them. He had malevolent red eyes and completely white skin. Top that off with his spiky purple hair and his scarily uncanny resemblance to one of the shinigami captains. This one was a real schemer and an open one at that. He put up an almost constant façade of an idiot that he only broke during very specific times. Their chess games were one of those times. As usual, Don played white and Nevar played black.

"So, how's your plan to get rid of me and take over Las Noches coming?" Don asked.

"It's going along fine. You really should have gotten rid of me at the time you came into power. I'm sure you suspected at the very least that I'd be after the position of primera," Nevar replied, sliding a piece over, "D6. Do you really value your life that little?"

"No. I just value the game that much," Don replied smoothly, leveling his gaze at Nevar, "It's not fun when I hold all the cards."

"You're still pretty close to it. There's always the option to kill me and claim a draw whenever you want."

"Queen to d2. Somehow I'd think that you would have some underhanded trick to make sure that you'd live," the answer came back, "So, why did you give Tsubaki such an irresistible morsel of information?"

"You'll see, I suppose."

"I'm still rather disturbed at the fact that you're playing the black pieces."

"Well, we can't both we white. In any case, let the games begin, then."

"Don't say such foolish things. The games began since the day I took the position of primera."

--

So ends chapter 2. It seems I couldn't quite fit everyone in this round. This looked like a good stopping point and I know I'm running slow on the updates.


	6. Mission Success, Mission Failure

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does.

--

The door to Don's little "game room" opened and an elegant arrancar glided in. It was Marguerite Armelle, the segunda espada. She took one angry look at the chess board.

"I don't get why you spend time playing games with the freak that wants to off you," Marguerite whined, then switched to a totally carefree and cheery voice, "Let's go drinking!"

Nevar just stared back with a totally passive look, the kind he knew that she hated. As perceptive as she was, she had never been able to understand why Don spent so much time with him. She didn't understand the fun of the game. Then again, she had never been one for tactics. She was lazy, drank all the time, and cared more about how she looked than most other things, but few were stupid enough to get on her bad side. As easygoing as she was, once upon a time, an espada had called her ugly. The punishment had lasted an excruciatingly painful two seconds and there wasn't so much as a corpse or any trace of anything of the like. Afterwards, Don had just shook his head and asked her to refrain from blowing a hole in Las Noches in the future. Gran Rey Ceros did that kind of thing.

"Go on. We can continue this later," Nevar said, waving Don off. The primera hesitated, unsure how good an idea it was to walk off without learning more. Figuring that he'd get nothing more out of his slippery opponent since he probably wouldn't be nearly so giving if they did continue, he got up and walked out after Marguerite. In any case, that which was already in motion was going to go into motion, regardless. All there was to do was sit back, wait, and see just how things were going to play out.

--

In the living world, the espada known as Tsubaki stepped out of a garganta. Though the espada in general didn't tend to go hunting there, preferring to stay in Las Noches, the fact that three captains had been spotted there was too rare a meal for him to miss. Though he was the quinta espada, he was hardly given the respect that usually came with such an esteemed position. In general, it boiled down to a few small reasons. He was pale. He was skinny as a stick. He was a power freak. He was a little kid compared to the rest. At only 15 years old, he was by far the youngest espada and never earned the massive following he desired so much. In fact, the rest had laughed at him, saying that he was going to get whipped until Samuel Hedorah, the cuatro espada had offered to accompany him. It was pathetic and sad. He deserved much more than that. He was strong and he was getting stronger. Let's see if they would laugh when he became the primera.

Right behind him stepped out Hedorah Samuel, the much more esteemed, lizardlike cuatro espada. Though his respect took some hits due to his stalker mindset and his appearance, his combat prowess and extreme patience in battle were another story. Like Tsubaki, he dreamed of being the primera and ironically, each viewed the other mostly as a tool to achieve that same goal.

Within a minute of the entrance of the arrancar, the three shinigami captains entered the living world as well. Without hesitation, Samuel faded into the background, masking both his reiatsu and his body using his chameleon like abilities. Tsubaki released a fair amount of reiatsu, bringing himself to the center of attention of the three shinigami. Kohaku spoke up first.

"Why don't we just ignore him? Then we can get some sake and get on with things," she suggested to Howie, making a shooing motion with her hand at the arrancar in front of them, "It's not like Mr. Anorexic going to do much."

Tsubaki's eyebrow twitched. Samuel bit his lip to keep from laughing and giving his position away as he crept along the side of a house, trying to position himself for a surprise attack.

"I will not be ignored!" Tsubaki thundered, charging up a cero and firing it off at the three captains. Without a moment of hesitation, Kohaku waved a hand at the arrancar.

"Hadou 54: Haien."

A purple flame shot out and cancelled out the cero. A defensive spell would have resulted in damaging the surroundings. Hearing the familiar swish of a slicing sword, Raven dodged to the side as a zanpakuto struck him in the back, going through his torso and coming out the front. With a flick, he was hurled into a nearby building. Whirling around, Howie used a quick kido, one that not many upper level shinigami used but was extremely useful for locating things due to its general area attack.

"Hadou 9: Geki!"

A red light engulfed Samuel, breaking his camouflage and paralyzing him momentarily before he shook it off. That was of course came a bit late. Kohaku had already fired off a silent byakurai with deadly accuracy, piercing the center of Samuel's tongue, cutting it off and more importantly separating him from his zanpakuto which was clenched at the tip, dripping with blood. Hissing angrily, Samuel retracted what was left of his tongue as it regenerated. As far as he was concerned, though, it was still a favorable outcome. One captain was down and eating just one would be more than sufficient to call it a victory.

"Grow, Tsurukusa."

Tsubaki may have disliked doing things himself, but it was another matter when the enemy was distracted. Bony white vines grew out of his body, shooting at the two remaining captains, sending a few to fetch the fallen one for later consumption. Kohaku glared daggers at him and unsheathe her zanpakuto.

"Blow your winds, Kakera no Kaze!"

As Kohaku swung, her zanpakuto transformed into a hand tessen with a painting of a geisha on it. A slicing gale came from it, dicing all the vines that Tsubaki had sent in her direction. Angry at missing a second helping but not wanting to risk losing what he'd got, Tsubaki snatched Raven up in his other vines and began to sonido off to get enough space to safely create a garganta and escape with his winnings.

Meanwhile, Samuel was very much on the run from Howie who wasn't letting him get anywhere near his zanpakuto or get enough peace for him to concentrate and use his camouflage to get any distance. Firing off balas didn't do much good as they'd just been dodged without too much effort. How odd it was to find a captain who fought based on instinct. Glancing off to the side, he noticed Tsubaki trying to run off with the winnings he'd earned. Changing directions, he sonidoed off after the little snake. A whole captain's worth of strength wasn't something that he was just going to give up willingly.

On the end of Tsubaki's vines, the thorns had given Raven a rather rude awakening, the painful and poisonous kind. Arms bound, he responded in the only way he really could.

"Bakudo 73: Tozansho!"

Gathering some reiatsu in his hands, Raven brought up a pyramid shaped barrier around himself, effectively cutting the vines around him and earning himself some breathing space. Unfortunately, that didn't help with the poison that was already spreading through his body.

"Kohaku, recover Kanzaki and send him someplace safe!" Howie called over to Kohaku. It may have been against Secret Mobile Corps mentality, but she didn't like thinking that way. It wasn't like she was going to put them all at risk here. Kohaku shunpoed over to Raven. It was then that everyone discovered one of her… downfalls as a person in a military organization. She lurched and hurled at the sight. In short, she was hemophobic. Tsubaki almost fell over.

"A captain afraid of blood?!" he laughed hysterically. Kohaku didn't find it amusing at all as she was still puking her guts out. Sighing, Howie held up her zanpakuto.

"Destroy the flesh, shut down the body, Meimyaku."

Howie's odachi shifted shape into a pair of scythes, one with a white thread and one with a black thread attached to the ends. Turning to Tsubaki, she hurled her left scythe at him, grabbing onto the white thread to keep hold of it. Dodging to the left, the arrancar surrounded her with a new set of vines. Samuel took the break in attention towards him, diving down and snatching up his zanpakuto before shoving it down his throat.

"Spread, Veneno."

Samuel's zanpakuto lit up as he became even more like a chameleon than he already was. A white set of armor came over his body and his entire face changed, elongating itself like a lizard's. Eyes on the sides of his head and flexibility increased now, he was granted a true lack of blind spots. Reaching into his mouth, he pulled out a short spear. Watching Tsubaki dodge the scythe, he shook his head. Greedy, slimy worm. He'd get his just desserts soon enough. There were many advantages to being older that he'd understand soon enough. Soon enough was defined as right about now as Tsubaki wrapped his vines around Howie who to his surprise actually grabbed onto them with little to no concern at all, merely shrugging off the pain from the thorns and yanked on her white thread. The scythe that had flown past Tsubaki came back, lodging itself in his back. Then pulling the vines, she shunpoed forward and slashed him across the chest with her right scythe. See? Age and knowledge of some of the captains really did wonders sometimes. Any of the seasoned arrancar knew that Howie was entirely immune to venoms and toxins. That wasn't something that boded in either of their favors, but not realizing that she was immune was usually not a good mistake to make and tended to be pretty costly. Oh well. None of them really liked Tsubaki anyway. How unfortunate it was that Don would probably destroy him if he ate the annoyance. Historically, Don had run the espada in a manner no other primera had and as ruthlessly effective as he could be, he had never liked the idea of arrancar against arrancar. Even in the events where one arrancar challenged another for rank, the killing and eating of the loser was forbidden except under very specific circumstances. The last time it had happened, he'd eaten the victor just to make a point. It had worked very well as an incentive to follow the rule. On principle, eating other arrancar dwindled their own numbers, something Don didn't want. Instead of doing something that would get the primera after him, Samuel settled for making use of Tsubaki and going for the less combat ready pair of captains. First would be the one that was puking. The other had already been infected with Tsubaki's poison so he'd go down with time, regardless and he wasn't going to recover right now. As he jabbed his spear down at the captain, he was met with a rude interruption.

"Hadou 1: Sho! Bakudo 75: Gochuutekkan!"

Samuel was thrown back by an invisible force, getting a glimpse of Raven braced up against a wall with an outstretched hand before five massive iron pillars fell on top of his head.

Seeing the wounds he was receiving and the fact that his only ally had just gone down, Tsubaki angrily cut his vines and sonidoed away from Howie, earning himself another wound as the scythe in his back was unceremoniously yanked out. Tapping the air behind him, he made a garganta and stepped through before he received any more wounds than he already had, ditching Samuel without so much as a second thought. The other espada, not liking the odds one bit formed a garganta beneath him, falling through it and dropping back into Las Noches with the iron pillars right behind him. Seeing both of the arrancar leave, Howie turned to check on the other two. Raven still had the initial wound plus a number of minor lacerations. Pretty pale, it was fair enough to guess that those vines had been poisonous. Kohaku on the other hand had recovered just fine, finished with her hemophobic session. Dropping down to ground level, she took note of a human that was looking on. How odd. This one didn't look shocked at all the see the damage done to the surrounding area. It looked like a typical teenage girl with strawberry blonde hair. She was wearing a light blue crop top with long bell sleeves and tight dark blue low rider jeans with white converse, not too odd for a girl in the living world. The only odd thing was her eyes, one a bluish silver, the other gold but odder things had been seen before. Then the girl walked straight over to Raven and began bandaging the wounds. Now that was a bit odder. Upon second inspection, a white glove with blue markings on the girl's right hand stuck out, a sanrei shuto. Without any pause, Howie walked over to her.

"You should probably leave," Howie suggested, "Shinigami have orders to kill quincys on sight."

"Why can't we just be friends?" the girl asked, "You haven't tried to kill me yet and you seem like a nice person. I'm Osaki Sanyu."

Howie was a bit unsure of how to respond. Being friends with a quincy wasn't something she horribly objected to but the idea in itself could cause a lot of problems. Finding no better answer, she decided to end the conversation there.

"I'm sorry to cut things short, but one you're bandaging up is poisoned. I need to take him back to Soul Society for treatment," Howie told the girl, taking Raven from Sanyu who let go reluctantly.

"Okay. Come back soon," Sanyu told the three before running off to go find her vizard friends so they could go drinking. Kohaku opened a senkaimon gate and the three stepped through. Back in Soul Society, Howie brought Raven over to the 4th and took a blood sample so she could get busy making an antidote. She couldn't help but think how convenient this was. They'd managed to totally avoid the vizards entirely for a completely legitimate reason. Kohaku prepared a hell butterfly with the events of the mission to the first division. It wasn't long before a wave of Kazuya's reiatsu washed over the Seireitei, nothing that the captains couldn't handle or were intimidated in the slightest by but certainly enough to display his outrage.

--

Nevar looked on in amusement as the pair of espada crashed back into Las Noches. Poor things. Perhaps it would get them to rethink the misplaced pride they had just because they were espada but he doubted it. Nevertheless, it was all going to plan. Don would most likely not be surprised at the results either. After all, it was simply the opening act and opening acts were for the most part predictable. Nevertheless, the pieces were in place and it would soon be time for the game to go from just beginning to getting interesting.

In a lounge Don had had installed in Las Noches, he and Marguerite were happily drinking away. The crash was heard and Don just sipped his sake. So it would seem that all had gone as predicted. All the espada had grumbled at first when he had claimed that he had no plan to take down the shinigami. In reality, that had only been half true. He wasn't going after them but he simply didn't need to, just have the arrancar strong enough to handily defeat the shinigami when they made the aggressive move, a move that was undoubtedly going to come. That would not be just yet, though, ideally. There was no sense in rushing in when you could wear them down first. Harry the enemy and tire him out, then move in for the kill. It was a simple rule of battle.

--

Sorry for the long wait. I've been really busy. Since the focus is going to move to the living world a lot for a while, the vizards will be showing up next chapter after a far overdue wait.


	7. Out of the pan and into the flames

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I also don't own most of the characters in here.

Yes, sorry for the obscene wait. I knew I was going to be delayed but I didn't think it would be nearly this bad. I wish it could be longer but I'm going to have to dig out my old notes so I can get back on track with this and move things along. If anyone PMed me characters instead of submitting by review since the last chapter, your character is in those notes that need to be dug out so they probably won't be showing up in this chapter.

--

Don sipped his drink, turning his attention from the two espada that had returned to the trio next to him. The one in the middle was another that presented a possible threat, albeit a very small one. Alone, he doubted there was an issue but it was possible that he had unknowingly become an instrument in the tercera's plans. That man was Allen Darknight, the current top privarion espada after losing his position as the primera. He had seen this one fight on a couple occasions and he was convinced that during the time Allen had lost his position, he had been hampered in one way or another because he was definitely more powerful than the primera that had bit the dust during his rise to power. Allen came much before his time yet showed little aging, something that also put him on guard. Though already graying, he always seemed to be the arrancar most in tune with fashion, having his hair messily slicked back and always decking himself out with an ironed shirt, pressed pants, and a trench coat, all black. Or was that not in style anymore? Maybe he was just too behind to tell what was in and what wasn't. The other two things that bothered him were the seeming lack of a mask and the man's raw lack of hostility towards the shinigami that was so typical of hollows. He doubted that there would be issue of anything like defection but hesitation to kill seemed possible, maybe even likely.

Then there were the two next to him, Delaine and Lucia Amaranth, the two sisters who had been Allen fraccions in the days he'd been the primera or so he'd heard. Though no longer bound to listen to him, they followed along like lost puppies. He was sure Marguerite could put the pair away with relative ease is there arose a problem but he did feel that they were much stronger than the typical fraccion just based on how long they'd been around, possibly weaker or middle espada range. Both were fiercely loyal so if anyone made a move against him, they would attack regardless of the opponent's strength. The threat wasn't so much direct loss as it was potential loss of military strength. Three would be lost instead of just one. Wiping out a big chunk of the old regime when he'd risen obviously had dealt some damage to their overall combat power so more losses were not acceptable.

Leaving the trio behind, Don got up to observe the damages done to the pair of returning espada. It took about one second to see that a good chunk of the damage had Howie written all over it. The oddly located cuts were most likely made by her scythes. Her particular talents also made her a totally unfair matchup against this particular pair. No one walked away well if she got her toxins going and he doubted anyone alive could beat her at her own game.

"Get cleaned up, you two and let this be a lesson to both of you," Don ordered, turning and walking away to a slightly more discreet area.

"Anthony," he addressed, "Go to the living world and find out why the response was so unnaturally swift."

The dark figure of Anthony Enma, captain of the Exequias, bowed and disappeared with a quick sonido. Don kept going as if nothing had happened to think things over. How odd it was that that particular captain had been out in the field at the time, the exact one that made those two useless. Perhaps it was coincidence, perhaps some common factor drawing them there. Who knew? Hopefully Anthony could shed some light on the situation so he could better plan his actions.

--

Howie sighed, walking back to her division, tired from cooking up an antidote to that espada's poison. She had of course kept a vial for her own personal collection that partially existed for fun, partially for functionality. It wasn't long before she heard a loud racket from the courtyard. She just shook her head, not even having to think to know what was happening. It was the exact same thing that happened the first Wednesday of every month. Morgan, their third seat, had challenged Aihana Hoshigai, their fukutaicho, for her position. Again. There was a large crack as Morgan was abruptly hammered five feet into the ground by her massive ten foot long shikai that she wielded like it was as light as a feather.

"Oops! I'm sorry! I didn't hurt you too badly did I? Let me get you something to help you," Aihana spazzed, going for the massive roll of bandages, taking the medical kit, and calling over the 4th division members that had come to save the trouble of being called over. Again, again. It was the same drill as usual. Their third seat just didn't seem to understand the kind of power gap there was between him and Aihana. He wasn't that weak for his position but he was still what he was while Aihana was somewhere between a really strong fukutaicho and a weaker taicho. It just also so happened that she was the antithesis of a fighter in every way, from the personality to her physique. A real peace lover, she hated fighting, even trying to help the opponent when it was self defense. She displayed no aura of command and power like some of the other officers, instead acting more like a new recruit that had just been drafted from a tea party to the military. That was, except the bandage over her left eye and her very oddly colored black and white hair. No one knew the story behind those of if there even was one but the focus never fell on those two things. Usually, no one got past her extremely small frame and her total lack of will to kill anything. She didn't even order her subordinates around. Usually, they told her what to do instead. Those brutish men just couldn't accept that a little girl that was less than half their age and three sizes too small to fit into the smallest issued uniform could beat them all up while trying not to. It was a wonder how she ended up with this kind of occupation. It must have been something along the lines of wanting a better life than in the Rukongai but it wasn't that important and she didn't want to pry into her fukutaicho's business.

--

Kohaku walked back to her division and was greeted by her two main subordinates.

"Suzumiya-taicho, what happened?" Kaoru piped up, sensing relief in her general body language.

"We beat back a couple espada but Kanzaki-taicho was injured during the fight. He's recovering in the 4th right now and Kazuki is throwing a tantrum," she replied, walking past the pair and taking up residence on the couch in the office after a trip to the fridge to pick up a few brownies from her vault of sweets from the living world that someone that was probably Kanzaki smuggled in from time to time. The "living world wish list" was just one of those things that the top brass was always in the dark about yet the common people knew everything about. People would write stuff down on this list and it would magically show up in the Seireitei in a different place each time. The top brass had at one point busied themselves with trying to catch the smuggler. That had been the day before "the pocky incident". The search was soon called off, totally unfruitful. Some sugar would be good to ease her mind about all of this. Such peaceful focus on the sugary goodness was interrupted by the presence of the dark reiatsu of Ui Sessei, the 3rd division captain.

"What's he up to this time?" Kohaku muttered. It only took a second to figure it out. Sessei's mind was so totally simplistic, typical guy mentality. Putting down her delicious brownies reluctantly, she got up and headed over to the 7th division.

--

Makoto walked out in front of her new division, having donned her new captain's haori for the first time. She was extremely nervous, unsure of how to act. Frankly, she'd been promoted just by being the most suited out of a totally unsuited pool of candidates. She hated responsibility on a whole and would love nothing more than to spend her off time in the nearest bar or sake house but noooo… They had to go promote her into a position that required doing lots of paperwork. Evil, evil people.

"Hey, Slut."

"Oh great. Curse you, 46," Makoto thought as she was yanked back by her blue ponytail and roughly pulled into a kiss from behind. Her old captain had come to harass her now that her fraternization law protection was now completely null. She tried to elbow him in the stomach but was quickly grabbed by the wrist. Then came the welcome legendary stream of profanities of Suzumiya Kohaku as she angrily approached, ready to hammer Sessei into the ground.

"That's sexual harassment! Why you haven't been fired is beyond me!" Kohaku thundered after her new thirty second long name for Sessei, "Hadou 33: Soukatsui!"

Sessei shunpoed out of the way, leaving Makoto to duck the blue blast that made a gaping hole in the wall where her head had been just a moment before.

"Shino! Get me that rusty carving knife! I'm going to castrate Sessei for women everywhere!" Kohaku shouted back but Sessei was already long gone. Seeing that he had fled, she turned her attention elsewhere and stomped over to Makoto and hoisted her up to her feet by her collar.

"And you! You need to start standing up for yourself! Your whimpy mentality is what breeds rapists like Sessei!"

"But I haven't heard of him raping-" Makoto started before she was promptly smacked in the face.

"I don't care! Don't just stand there! Castrate him! Sterilize him! At least kick him in the balls or something instead of standing there and taking it!"

"But I-"

Smack.

"I really-"

Smack.

"Ok, ok, I get the idea," Makoto whimpered.

Smack.

"Say it like you mean it!" Kohaku commanded as Makoto shrank back.

--

Back in the living world, Sanyu skipped happily back to her house that could better be described as a small mansion. Her father, Aki, was a wealthy CEO of a publishing company that somehow managed to find time to be a part time quincy as well. He'd always wished that he could be full time instead of part but it was too late now as he felt that it would be unfair to his wife to make her shoulder more of the work for the family income. In Sanyu's mind, it was a joke as they were filthy rich regardless. Her mom designed top class kimonos and even if her dad stopped working altogether, they'd still be making seven digits. If they had to cut back, then maybe the third unnecessary maid and the fourth spare car would have to go. If he really wanted to be a quincy, he could. It wasn't like they'd be missing meals over the loss of income. Walking into the house, she saw the Kiyoshi Miyamoto, the poor boy that her father had teamed up with his to try to harass him into becoming a serious quincy. She did have to admit that he had some kind of obscene learning speed, mastering the basics in two days and was bribed with a new set of drums to master his sanrei shuto a week later but not everyone that could be a quincy needed to be. There was freedom of choice for a reason. She'd seen his father's training schedule and almost gagged. If Kiyoshi followed that thing, his social life would be smothered. Maybe she ought to give him a hand this time… Well, kind of. It was partially a favor, partially a prank.

"Come on, Kiyo-chan! You're going to die socially if you stay pent up here. There's a party at a friend's place in a few minutes," Sanyu chirped happily, dragging him off by the ear and leaving the pair of entirely quincy obsessed fathers behind with confused stares.

"I don't have any issue with your son coming here to get some motivation to train his powers but my daughter needs support financially and a strong, dedicated quincy that can help her. Your son is neither," Aki said, breaking the silence.

"He could be the strongest quincy in centuries if he would stop running off," Kiyoshi's father shot back. A short round of bickering ensued.

--

"Ow, ow, ow," Kiyoshi grumbled as he was dragged along, "Where are you taking me?"

"To a party, " Sanyu answered, letting go of his ear and knocking on the door of the nearest house. A teenage girl with purply white hair and decently modern dress opened it, looking sharply at Kiyoshi.

"Sanyu, why must you keep bringing more random people here?" she groaned.

"But Ronin-kun, I'm just getting him some peace from his quincy crazy dad," Sanyu protested, dragging Kiyoshi though the door, "I'll make you pancakes."

Ronin's mood did a 180 degree turn as she cleared the way and helped dragged Kiyoshi in. Kiyoshi took note of three others present, none of which looked overly threatening. One was even a kid. Weird for a party. Who were these people? They weren't run of the mill, seeing as Sanyu was open with talking about the quincys.

"Don't sit there looking stupid. At least you could fit in by changing your actions. We can't. We're stuck how we are and are instantly condemned without having even done anything," Ronin shot at Kiyoshi, "If you're too dumb to know, we're the vizards."

Kiyoshi numbly fell back into the chair behind him as Sanyu wandered over to the kitchen and pulled out some pancake batter. He'd just gone out of the pan and into the flames.

--

I think there will probably be some degree of delay between this and the next update but I'll try to speed things up. More characters would be appreciated, especially a few more experienced, possibly more leader suited vizards. For those who have been waiting patiently, thank you. I'm not dead. Really.


	8. Begin the Hunt

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does. I don't own most of the characters here either, though that's kind of implied by it being what it is.

"I told you, I want out! I want nothing to do with the spiritual world!" Kiyoshi insisted, trying to make his way to the door, though it was entirely futile with Ronin dragging him back by the collar.

"We didn't just let you in so you could turn around and run away you know," she told him in an offhand manner, totally focused on the pancakes. Then everyone froze, feeling an immense reiatsu force approaching. Everyone rushed out the door, Ronin of course still dragging Kiyoshi along after her while he'd changed direction, trying to scramble to the back of the house. Upon getting outside, they just stared. Words failed them. There was an elderly lady crossing the street… helped by a tall imposing man with sharp navy blue hair, something that looked like bluish black mage robes… and a 6 foot long scythe. Needless to say, she was scared out of her wits. Upon closer examination, they noticed a white bony looking feather in his hair and an archaic looking balance in his left hand. Leaving the old lady, he walked over to them.

"Hello, I am Anthony Enma, the captain of Las Noches' Exequias division. I'm here to gather information regarding a battle that took place in this town a short while ago involving two espada and at least one shinigami captain," he greeted.

"We're the vizards, not the shinigami and we have nothing to do with them. We weren't at the fight either as it doesn't concern us. You're not invited either so-" Ronin started before Sanyu cut her off.

"Oh? You know them? They were kind of mean and hurt the town but you seem like a nice person. I'll tell you what I saw over dinner. I'm making pancakes," Sanyu told Anthony happily, totally unconcerned that she'd just invited an arrancar to dinner at someone else's house. Ronin's eyebrow twitched. The meal went about as smoothly as anyone could have hoped. No one got gutted, nor were any weapons pulled out. It was just really awkward with Sanyu talking away, the vizards being cautious, Anthony taking notes on the events, and Kiyoshi inching as far away from everyone as possible. He'd never have believed it before but right about now, the latter was wishing he was back with that pair of gung ho quincys. He wanted nothing to do with the spiritual world but he wasn't oblivious to the general dangers and being in the same room with an unrestrained arrancar and multiple vizards more than qualified.

Howie and Kohaku approached the 1st division compound to give the report on their trip to the living world as a certain stuck up fukutaicho had dictated. Ironically, that same usually refined and calm fukutaicho started rushing around like a chicken without a head upon sight of them. He came back a moment later with a ladder, hurriedly nailing down a large "no snakes" sign on the top of the doorway. Howie and Kohaku bit back laughter as Orochi slithered out from under Howie's haori, up the ladder, and up Kazuki's shikashuho. Kazuki looked to his left and saw Orochi's white dead pop out of his haori. After a moment, he screamed, falling off the ladder. Orochi happily made his way back into his cozy spot under Howie's haori.

"I hate snakes! Keep that thing away from me!" Kazuki stammered.

"Don't be like that. He just wants to play with you," Howie insisted, though most of the other captains already knew that Orochi just loved the reactions and since years ago, scaring Kazuki had become somewhat of a game to him.

"Come in and give your report," Kazuki ordered, regaining his composure, "And leave that thing outside!"

Kohaku's lip twitched at the sight as well as other thoughts on her mind as both followed after Howie put Orochi onto the ground where he slithered back off to his warm rock pond in the 2nd division, seeming quite proud of himself. Orochi hissed happily as Kazuki's reiatsu shot up angrily again. Apparently, he'd just been told what had happened.

It took every bit of restraint Kazuki had to keep himself from shunpoing over to the 4th division and attacking a particular patient. Not only had nearly no search occurred but he had no way to blame the man he was sure was at fault and said man had even managed to legitimately dodged being so much as lectured. It was fact that two espada had shown up and they had caused a degree of real damage. That could not be disputed and the damage would have to be cleaned up… by the 12th division, Kanzaki's people. There was no doubt that more than just repair would occur, leaving the 12th division captain with information and him with none unless he tried again. The problem was that with more information, it was all too simple to obstruct him or steer him away from what he was looking for. He'd been outmaneuvered somehow and that had to change soon. There had to be a way to pin that captain down for something, anything. If that man could be removed from the equation, he was sure that obstructions to his purification vision would be cleared. It was a shame that the 2nd division probably wouldn't obey an order to just assassinate him. It would have been so much easier if that was the case. However, now was the time to move. That man was in no position to interfere and these two were by their presence out of the equation. If they would not fulfill their duties, then he'd have other pieces do it in the meantime. The hell butterflies should have sent their orders by now and thanks to the last escapade, an opening had been made. Though he lacked the sensors of the 12th and the reliability of the first hand recon of the 2nd, he was not without his own resources so he'd been able to track a few wayward quincys and had left them alone. With this most recent one, he'd been able to mark off an approximate area where the reiatsu signatures dropped off to determine where the barrier was. In the center of that area was a small clump of businesses including a couple hotels, the main building of a publishing company, and a few 5 star restaurants. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure which of these those quincys were in. He had hoped that the last excursion would narrow it completely but he'd have to settle for this and let trial and error do its work.

Anthony rose from the table and hefted his scythe over his shoulder. After a quick thank you for their cooperation, he turned around and left by garganta to report to Don, then stopped in his tracks. In the sky above them, a senkaimon gate opened, revealing a number of shinigami. Sessei was in the middle, flanked by the less than amused Makoto to his left and Hinata to his right with her fukutaicho bringing up the rear. As hated by the rest as Sessei was for obvious reasons, they were in no real position to argue as he was appointed as lead being the most senior by far and most likely the most powerful of them.

"Well, you heard the boss. Dunno why the boss didn't just send us off in the first place but let's just get rid of the small fry so we can get to the espada already," Sessei grumbled, shunpoing in the direction of a skyscraper.

Aki stared out the window of his penthouse, feeling the storm approach the building. Aside himself, there were ten quincys in the building, basically almost all the adult quincys in the town. They'd thought it wise to stick together and make this place their fortress of sorts but perhaps in retrospect that was more motivated by pride than survival.

"Seal the building and put all able quincys out to repel the assault. We'll treat it just like any hollow attack," he ordered. There was a shattering sound as the inner barrier around the building shattered like glass, followed by the windows of almost every room on his side of the building. Theirs stayed intact along with a few others, every one that had soul synthesized glass. In other words, they were the rooms of most of the quincys.

"I believe we've made a critical error. They just pinpointed us," Aki murmured before walking off to make some preparations before the coming fight. Unfortunately, they didn't have much time for real preparation.

Sessei zeroed in on the first unbroken window and shunpoed into the next room, stepping on the resident in the process as he burst through the door and thundered into the hallway where he was met by a storm of arrows. Using his zanpakuto to deflect a few, he burst forward, thrusting at the quincy who batted it to the side with his bow.

"Masuboru, Gashiohgurai!" Sessei called. His zanpakuto curved a little and grew sharp teeth, hooking the bow. He pulled it back, making the bow shatter into a million pieces. The quincy followed his weapon a few moments later. Aki darted out the door, heading to the other rooms. It was unwise to fight in such close quarters alone. Gashiohgurai took a large bite out of the wall just as he rounded the corner.

Preferring to stay as far away from Sessei as possible, the other three entered the building from the normal entrance rather than go break things and make one.

"You know, it'd be nice if Sessei-san didn't cause so much damage. He's hurting a lot of people from the living world besides the quincys while he's at it," Hinata commented. She didn't really like these kinds of missions, much preferring less violent ones. It wasn't that she was incapable of it, though, as the quincy that had run down to ground level found out by trying to attack her. Her zanpakuto, Nitenichi, cleaved through his heart after a quick series of dodges and a random spread of arrows were left painting the wall behind her.

"Don't mention that name," Makoto fumed, still angry at Sessei for earlier today and angry at him in general for existing. Gaigan rolled his eyes. Not saying the name wasn't going to make him go away, though he couldn't say he enjoyed Sessei's company or that he wasn't glad that Sessei's lust for blood surpassed his lust for women, allowing them to go about the mission a little bit further away from him. Makoto glanced over in his direction and sighed, almost seeming to read his mind.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's just get this over with so we can get back…"

With that, Makoto shunpoed off past the reception desk and burst through the doorway to the stairwell and flew up to meet another unfortunate quincy.

So it seemed that the hiding quincys were in fact the smarter and more skilled of the bunch. What was a slaughter at the start quickly turned into a big game of hide and seek. Over the course of it, Sessei was for the most part left unscathed, though his clothes would disagree. Makoto got an arrow in her left leg, impeding her movement a bit but nothing more. Hinata got a wound on her side from a seele Schneider but again that was minor and that quincy was long punished for it. After an hour of this little game, Sessei finally lost it, though an hour was by far a new record for him keeping his temper.

"I am sick of this stupid hit and run! You're dead! All of you!" he bellowed, his voice echoing through the building. No matter where the quincys were, they would have heard it. Heading back outside, he headed to the ground floor and decided to end it, despite protest from the other three about disturbing the living world as little as possible. Hefting Gashiohgurai over his shoulder, he extended it and cleaved into the building. Shunpoing around, he caused more general destruction and tore the supports to shreds. He hated doing stuff like this but there was no way he was going to just hang around and play this little game forever. If they wouldn't come out, he'd destroy the whole place and make them come out. Within a minute, the entire skyscraper crashed to the ground, taking a nearby hotel down with it. Makoto had raised a hand and had thought of using a hadou to try to stop the impact but she already knew that she wasn't the kind of kido expert that could do that. Kazuki, Kohaku, and Kanzaki probably could but that was about it, most likely. To blow up the falling building would take a massive spell that'd still cause major damage to the rest of the area. To use a bakudo and stop the fall would be even harder since most kido barriers were designed to block an attack and then disappate, not stand long enough to hold back a falling building. Again, her thoughts were interrupted by an unsavory person.

"What did you think you were going to do, slut?!" Sessei laughed at Makoto who just turned away, opting not to engage him in conversation if the word meant anything in his prescence. Attention was brought back elsewhere as three figures emerged from the falling skyscraper. Sessei licked his lips. Now they were going to pay for making him wait so long.

I'm not dead. Really. My updating is just a bit erratic and long overdue.


End file.
